Loving Our Home Today

Maybe it's because I hosted a dinner party last night or it's because there are beautiful flowers on my dining room table perking up the place but I'm just loving the house today. So much so that I didn't leave it at all.

I began the day pulling weeds on the south side of the house. I hope I'm not too late to save the daffodils I believe are growing over there. The weeds were plentiful and the ants, even more so.

Before the end of the day our friend Lee stopped over to bring some fresh picked raspberries off his bush and to plant a sunflower plant for us. I can't wait for it to grow like crazy! The yard has a LONG way to go but I did make a dent in the weeds this week.

Anyway, all this love for our home made me take some more pictures. The only new thing you'll see is the couch below. Scott drove to Zeeland, MI a few weekends ago to pick it up. Zeeland is also the home of the Herman Miller furniture manufacturer. He was stoked.

Our new Eames Sofa Compact for the "family room"(we aren't sure what to call the room):



Backing up a bit to include the table:


A close up of the pattern:


I know the bedroom furniture was in the last post but those weren't such great photos. Not that these are very much better...but maybe a little:

Three of the 4 pieces:

(Still need new bedding. It's on the list.)

A close up of the bottom of the dresser (Soho made by Copeland):


And, finally, the room I was really loving today: The dining room.
The view from the entry way into the living/dining area (with my birthday present globe in the foreground):


And the table with the pretty flowers given to me at the dinner party last night:

(Nothing on the walls yet. We can't decide!)

The light fixture is from the house Scott grew up in. It's one of the only things he's carried around with him everywhere he's gone.

Scott cut a tree down in our front yard. It blocked the coolest part of the house - the garage windows. I agree you can see the coolness factor of our house better without the tree but I haven't come to terms with it being gone yet. It was a pretty little tree. Maybe the next update I'll photograph the outside.

Happy weekend everyone!

Successful Brunch

We had our first "party" at Sunny Ln. in the annual Hangover Brunch. It was a success (though when will I learn and buy some more plates so I can stop doing dishes during most of the brunch??) and so much more comfortable with so much more rooooom!

At 5pm on 12/31 we loaded up Ryan's truck with tons of the big trash which was still cluttering up the house. He pulled out of the drive way and Scott and I went to work trying to make the house ready. The sun room was still piled high with doors, old carpet, tools, a vanity, and much more. Luckily my best friend Matt arrived with his awesome family. Matt and Scott whipped the sun room in to shape for sure. I'm not exactly sure what Kristin and I did. I felt like a chicken with my head cut off so it's all a blur. There was much sweeping, I do remember that.

There's still much to be done (another pendant light to hang, trim, PAINT!, there's one toilet and one sink in different rooms that do not yet work, window treatments, at least one thresh hold, fireplace, hall bath, door bell) but the house was ready enough to start 2011 with some love. And everyone did LOVE it. Here are few pictures from the day which show it off:

Diane and Matt introduce Elise and Liam in the family room area (off the kitchen):


Mary checks out the buffet brunch options:


The sun room is enjoyed by some of my favorite people:


The Page family finally gets to see where their daddy has been all these evenings:


Casey and her youngins check out the fireplace:


The dinning room gets its first taste of food:


Pemby enjoys the Bloody Mary's in the bar area:


The Wilson's enjoy some play time in the yard:

Bamboo Floor Beginings

Today at 7am the floor crew arrived. By 9am 1/2 of the living room was done. Amazing.

Here's what it looked like when we bought it:


The dining room during the demo:


And, the process today:
After 2 hours:


After about 4 hours:


And at the end of the day, looking from living room into dining room:


and from dining room into living room:


That's Morning Star Stranded Bamboo. It doesn't scratch up like the softer, not stranded bamboo. It's BEAUTIFUL if I do say so my self!

Mostly just little things...

Mostly we've just had little things of great importance being done in order to prep for the drywall to go up next week (YAY!!!) Ryan (our GC) and Scott replaced a rotten support beam while I was at hot yoga class (hehehe). Big job. Much needed. Scott finished ripping out the drywall in the 80's bathroom. Ryan scooted around on his belly in the crawl space dragging cables and fixing duct work. I need to down load the pictures from his camera of our crawl space. The way the duct work looks will astound you. It's something else that just needs to be overhauled but it will have to wait. The plumber came around to move the toilet flange, set pipes in the proper position....and other little things I just don't know about. Oh! Someone removed the toilet flange from the front bathroom (the space we discovered used to be a bathroom - see previous post).

Just a few pictures to share. Scott began ripping out (the last?) the rest of the dry wall in the family room. It's hard to tell from the picture but, we discovered the windows in that room actually go all the way to the floor just as the windows in the big room.

This is what the windows look like on the outside:


This is what Scott found as he ripped away:


So, we can get rid of that weird siding and go BACK to the original design of FULL windows! I couldn't figure out why that damn siding was there. I'll be glad to see that go.

This is our dining room fixture which was added today. It came out of Scott's childhood home. He's carried it around with him all these years. We just need to replace a few bulbs.



I feel as though I need to start thinking paint colors. Send some ideas for the bedrooms!